Though I was hoping for the miraculous announcement of a Summer Tour in Europe this year (don't we deserve it too?) it looks like it's not going to happen. Phish is in their element in the summer time of the good ole US of A. The land where rock and roll will never die. Since I was in the US as recently as January, another trip this summer is not a financial possibility for me. Instead I'll just have to live vicariously through my friends and the internet, like the rest of us Phish fans in Europe have grown accustomed to doing. Phish is even playing Merriweather Post Pavilian, in my home State of Maryland. I have been to Merriweather several other times, to see the likes of Radiohead, the White Stripes, Velvet Revolver, O.A.R., Ben Harper, Manu Chao, and the Thievery Corporation. That venue holds a lot of great memories for me. Coincidentally the shows there on the 26th and 27th of June will be attended by a Polish friend of mine for whom it will be his 26th and 27th Phish shows! Just goes to show that with a little dedication and a lot of free time, dreams really can come true :) Can't wait to feel that feeling I forgot.

For all of you though, that may be considering the oceanic voyage, and all the other cars, trucks and busses that will take you for the ride of your life, I could perhaps give a bit of advice taken from my 'recent' experience to Festival8 in Indio, California for Halloween weekend in November. I was extremely fortunate to be able to go to my second Festival.

My booking plans were pretty routine. First I flew home to Maryland, where I am originally from. There I was able to gather some of my own camping gear that has been conveniently stored at my parents house, such as a sleeping bag and a cooler. Then, I flew into LAX airport, using the cooler, filled with my other camping necessities (sequined costumes, glow sticks, face paint, flags, you know- just your basic camping necessities) as my check-in luggage on the flight. Sure, I got a few funny looks trollying that thing around the airport, but when you're on your way to see Phish, a few funny looks only give you additional satisfaction. The knowledge that you will be seeing your phriends and phamily in a world which remains only an elusive to concept to those on the outside....

Once in LAX where there were shuttles for the show running to and from Indio for the festival. This information for the shuttle was widely advertised on the official Phish website. Additionally, there are plenty of other Phish phan sites that use forums to arrange ride shares, airport pick ups, and so forth. If you feel comfortable to arrange rides with 'strangers' I can give you a vote of confidence in this matter. Phish fans really are birds of a feather, and everywhere I've gone, there have been wonderful people willing to give the shirt off their own backs if needed. When I went to Coventry in 2004, I simply went to the parking lot after the Camden, New Jersey show with a sign that read 'Peace, love, and gas money' and within no time I was cozied up in a van with several other Marylanders (one that juggled and could solve a rubics cube in less than a minute) headed North on what became a 24-hour car journey to Vermont (this however, is such a story it deserves its own post). However, For Festival 8, I arranged with several friends to rent an SUV, and from there we drove ourselves to Indio for the festival. There were some flight issues, mainly regarding flight cancellations in Denver from snow, which resulted in us driving the SUV from LAX airport to John Wayne and back when the luggage was misplaced.... But otherwise, the travel went smoothly.

For the festival, camping passes were sold as part of the tickets package. Separate shows however, do not always have a camping venue available, so you will have to look at the location of the show and see what kind of inexpensive hotels, hostels or campgrounds are available. In the summer time, a cheap and easy way to go is to camp. Coming from abroad to the US, it may be no simple task to bring the necessary camping equipment. However, you can follow your own preferences according to your affinity with nature, and your budget. The other thing about the camping is that, so many other people on Summer Tour are doing that as well, so campgrounds turn into the 'afterparty' and that aspect of Tour is really part of the whole experience. Staying in a hotel each night after a show certainly would be comfortable, but then you'd be missing out on making all of those phriends in the campgrounds and picking mud from your toes the next day. Who'd want to miss that?

I requested 2 tickets for the show in Telluride, Colorado, but didn't get them. I wasn't planning on making it to the show, but if I were chosen from the lottery, I would have given the tickets to some of my friends who wanted to go. You can find more information from the Phish homepage, but many ticket sales are done by a pre-request lottery, then a phone booking on a specific date. If you know already which show you are interested in seeing, you need to look online at the sales date ASAP and use a cheap international call carrier (like the preceeding '99588 +number' here in Finland) because you may be on hold for a while to get through. Otherwise you may have to use some other sites, like phunkybitches.com, phish.net or other Phish fan sites to try to arrange tickets, or hope to find your tickets outside the gates when you arrive (this can be risky as they can be more expensive this way). In otherwords, though, the conventional online purchasing of the tickets from the official websites is not the only method of obtaining tickets, and certainly at this stage in the ticket sales, not the most probably way either (the 'virtual band' becomes even more elusive).

Aside from the purchasing of tickets, my best advice is to travel light, and buy what supplies you need when you get there. Lawn chairs and other things are nice to have, but are a big luxury and travelling with them is next to impossible if you are taking a flight. When you get to the US you will find many discount superstores, e.g. Walmart, that will sell cheap camping supplies. If then you have no way of bringing them back on the flight with you, you can give them away at the end of the tour to those with cars living in the US who will be able to keep them, rather than throwing them away. They'd happily take your extra tubes of sunscreen, your $10 sleeping mat, or the cooler you buy for the tour but can't fit back into your luggage. These things you will want to have, but know that you can find them cheaply at superstores or camping supply stores like Sunny's Surplus, and giving them away later only adds points to your karma. Surely another Phish fan will have certainly given you something along the way. We stopped at a funny little alcohol bait and tackle place in the middle of nowhere on our drive from LA to Indio, where they sold everything from booze, to porn, camoflauge belts with the playboy bunny on them, and dry goods who's shelf life had long expired. There we were charged above the normal selling price because we were obviously out-of-towners, but we were too tired from our back-and-forth between two airports to notice/care. We decided then to make it our mission to visit the 24-hour Walmart before heading in to the campground. There, we got all the beer, fruit, sunscreen, and booze that we needed. Unfortunately they weren't selling water guns, because it was November :(. We were in good company, while shopping there were plenty of other Phish goers about, and many of them looked even more interesting than our motely crew. Though mostly I can say with certainty that the last people to judge us are the people working the night shift at a 24 hour Walmart, it was quite funny when the woman in her 40's lacking some teeth propositioned my friend (a girl) at the check-out. Though she added afterwards that her girlfriend would have her sleeping in the doghouse if she were caught cheating.... oh the people you'll meet....

As for the actual Festival 8, I was not disappointed. The venue was very well chosen, and as usual, the band spared no expense in gimmickry or amusement! If you're travelling in large groups, or have more than one car in your travelling caravan, you may want to make sure to drive into the parking lot right behind them, in order to get adjacent parking/camping spots. That way you don't have to go all looking for your friends after the show, though this is also an experience that yields some interesting adventures and new friends as well. The grounds was a very well manicured horse polo grounds and therefore, any camping spot was nicely flat and soft. The Los Pedros mountain range in the background and the palm trees everywhere added a nice scenic touch!

My friends had purchased a foldable picnic table with benches attached that they brought as checked luggage from Denver, and also an easy-up for shade. We brought also Halloween decorations for the 'easy-up', including solar powered LED lights, plastic spiderwebs and so forth. Finally, we marked our spot. Going to a large Festival where you will want to find many friends that you did not come with, OR at the end of the night, in case many of the camp grounds look the same and you would otherwise have difficulty finding your camping spot, marking is important. Many people do this with large helium balloons or tapestries. We used a Maryland and a Finland flag. The campsites were also sectioned off and named for convenience. Each campsite was given the name of one potential candidate album for the cover show on Halloween night. We stayed in the lucky chosen one, 'Exile on Main Street', which is the Rolling Stones album that they ended up choosing to cover :) It was to the surprise of many when they found that 'Loving Cup' was not a Phish original, but rather a Rolling Stones cover.

The festival transformed the polo grounds into it's own Gamehenge, a miniature city taken over by peaceful nomads from all walks of life. It included a 'merch' area for necessities and amenities alike, water bottles with the Phish logo on them which if purchased, could be refilled for free at the many water-refill stations (a great way to cut back on waste). There was a farmers market, where you could buy fresh local produce and other earth friendly amenities, like organic coffee and comb honey. The nearby 'shakedown' provides an opportunity to buy souveniers, like homemade merch, t-shirts, PhanArt, and other goodies. Nearby to 'shakedown', there was live open art being created and constructed including my personal favorite- a large boat constructed from plastic recycleables! We were freely invited to contribute, and the art became a massive group endeavor. Inside the venue, a labrynth shaped like a snake tempted visitors with distorted mirrors and other illusions. Reaching the top, an elevated view of the stage was a nice vantage point for those who don't aspire to be entrenched in the pulsating, glowing swarm that is the crowd. There was also a Giant Wheel, providing a magnificent view of Los Pedros mountains and the entire grounds (see the picture of my friends and I in our Ocelot costumes).  For me, little extra touches were what made the band's playful creativity come to life, for example the doughnuts shaped like an '8' that they were giving away on Sunday morning, or the giant glowing zeppelin that floated and changed colors throughout the music.

These are all just suggestions, things that I have experienced, and have witnessed working for others, but everyone has a different travel/tour mode, and their own preferences. Hopefully sharing this experience with you has given you some ideas of how things go and what you'll need to do to prepare yourself for the geat journey! Let me know if any of this has been helpful, and if you need any other suggestions, I am happy to help.

The alarm clock rang 7.15 after 4,5h of sleep. Much too short for my taste. I felt every beer and irish whiskey that Justin was carrying around as usual. Unfortunately staying in bed was no option as we had to catch a flight from Miami to Philly.

The breakfast room was empty and so were the streets when we drove to the airport and returned to car at the Alamo station. The Jeep patriot was 175 EUR a week incl premium insurance package and one tank of gas! A standard intermediate car would have been 150 EUR so I can only recommend to pay the extra 3-4 EUR per day and enjoy the cool american style SUV driving. "I want my SUV" (was that Mark Knopfler singing in "Money for nothing"?).

At the airport we had to find out that our flight was delayes over a hour. We have two hours in Philly so we should still be able to make the connection flight to Frankfurt. The good thing was that they had free Wi-Fi at the US Airways gate so I could upload last night's pictures to Flickr where Yome is grabbing them to put them up here. The livephish.com downloads of all 4 nights are already on my Blackberry and ready to be explored in depth over the next couple of hours.

When we entered the plane I discovered soul singer John Legends sitting in the first class. Prominent travel mate I would say ;) The flight itself was horrible. Bumpy turbulences for 2 hours. My stomach was spinning in circles - the beers an whiskeys, you remember?

Philly to Frankfurt was on time. Nothing exciting on the 8h flight but I got a beer for free (instead of 7 USD) because a salad bowl felt off the wagon of the stewardess when she was passing by and landed on my lap. Frankfurt to Berlin (usually a 50min flight) was also on time but couldn't land in Berlin because the airport was shut down for about 60-90min due to heavy snow fall. Once on the ground we couldn't get a parking position as the other planes couldn't start during the closing period. It took ages until we finally had the bags, passed customs (no officer on duty at all) and jumped into a cab that drove us to our flat. I hardly remember so much snow in Berlin. What a contrast?! +28°C sun and beach to -10°C snow and concrete. We have 2 days left to fully recover before Natalie and me both go back to work on Monday January 4th. My head is full of great memories and the trip and experience was definitely worth every Euro and minute of traveling. Would do it again without thinking twice! Take care all of you and happy new year again to the whole Phish community and sites which help us to connect, share, publish, etc. (phish.com, livephish, drygoods, fromtheroad,  phishthoughts, bouncingaroundeuroom.eu, thisweekonlot.com, jambands.com, phish.net, phantasytour, glidemagazine, relix,  archive.org, twitter, facebook, last.fm, youtube, flickr and many more).

Last day in Miami and we picked up Justin at his motel on Biscayne Blvd to go to south beach at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. This is one of the nicest beaches I know! Perfect on time we got the best weather of the week (approx. 27-28C). We could even swim in the ocean this time. Before we left the beach we took the obvious pictures and got a random blessing by a really nice and wise man who loved to hear that we just got married. He asked god to bless us with health, a long life, happiness, luck, children, etc. And he told us that I am the "head" and Natalie is the "neck" and that the head is nothing without the neck. He also said that a table with 2 legs doesn't stand. So true! I really did feel blessed after the procedure as strange as it sounds. I definately took it as a good sign by any meaning.

Back in the hotel around 5pm we packed our stuff for the flight back and wanted to go to Shuckers again but due to NYE they didn't serve dinner. We walked up the street where I spotted a fish restaurant ("The Crab House") the days before. The waitress was enthusiastic about their special deals and special NYE 3-course menues but I politely interrupted her to tell her that we are looking for a very quick and short dinner because we go the see Phish. She didn't have a clue what I was talking about ;) Natalie had fish and chips and I had a combo with fish and chips, crab cakes and fried scampi. Yummie! They tried to support our evening plans real hard and brought the food in record breaking time. The difficult part was to get a taxi which took about 20min. The caribean driver was really funny ("NYE in Miami is CRAZY I tell ya"). He explained that it would be close to impossible to get a cab on NYE especially after midnight and on the Miami side as all cabs are in South Beach (I will come back to this later). He dropped us off across the street after a speedy 25 USD ride.

Everything was fully packed and the air was burning. It was a hot day and the streets were still warm at night. People were heated up for the show and NYE in general. You could see all kinds of crazy costumes, formal dresses, fake hairs, colorful clothes. The mass was screaming, yelling, cheering to let out the energy in some direction. There was also a strong demand to connect with others which resulted in a total breakdown of all mobile networks. I wasn't abe to call or text message Justin for over an hour! Suddenly the plan to party in advance of the show busted and we drank our bee alone. I was definately pumped for the NYE show and even Natalie was kind of looking forward to it this time.

I had just bought 2 beer inside and walking towards our section as set 1 started with "AC/DC Bag". I prepared a wish list of songs during the day and they played 14 (!) out of 29 - that's a 50% correct guess. After a perect dancing start they played "46 Days" which always gets me in a really good mood. "Water In The Sky" pleased the Florida crowd before "Bathtub Gin" took it to the next level. Then "Punch You in the Eye" got the arena through the roof. I have never seen such a wild collective dance. This set 1 was like a second 2 set if you know what I mean. Fast, groovy, jamming - like the pefect "The Moma Dance" which was followed by a singing "Guyute". Then the band gave the crowd a rest after the multiple orgasms. "Swept Away", "Demand", "Seven Below" and the cool bar tune "Lawn Boy" helped to save some power for the long night yet to come. They really know to make a perfect setlist with exciting starts, exclamation, rests and a grand finale like "Julius". Man, what a 1st set! Unfortunately still no Justin in sight.

During setbreak Natalie stayed at the seats in case Justin would be looking for us. I was getting us 2 more beers and return exactly when the lights turned off and Justin made down from 4th level to our lower section (sec 118, row 20, seats 7/8). The rest of the night should bring massive excitement with 2 of my favorite covers by Phish. First one kicked off set 2 - "Rock & Roll" (by The Velvet Underground). It felt like the show contained a lot of "Billy Breathes" and "The Story of the ghost" songs. "Rock & Roll" was one of my absolute highlights of the whole night and it got an welcomed extension when it merged into "Piper" followed by "Simple" with a background choir of 20.000 phans. "Theme From The Bottom" gave us some air to breath before we collapse. "Shine A Light" is the second best song (besides "Loving Cup") from the Halloween musical costume which brought us a complete cover of the Rolling Stones record "Exile on main street". And it got better and better with the obvious "Ghost" which was overdue since 3 days and fulfilled all expectations. "NO2" and "Suzy Greenberg" closed an awesome 2nd set around 11.30pm.

From now on everybody was checking the clock for midnight to arrive. You could already see thousands of huge balloons holden by big nets under the roof of the American Airlines Arena. This is classic! 5min before midnight "Party Time" started the extravaganza and it seemed as it was only written for this occasion. The band moved into "Auld Lang Syne" exactly at midnight. The balloons were following down and filling the arena with pure joy. When the bass line of "Down With Disease" started the crowd totally freaked out for the next 10-15min. Balloons were EVERYWHERE!

Then the so called "NYE gag" with Fishman as main actor took place. Yome already wrote about it so I skip this part. I only want to add that from the audience you really couldn't tell if it was the girl or Fishman dressed up like the girl. And the faking at the beginning of "Fluffhead" seemed like a really well trained amateur drummer tried to play with Phish. "Joy" was the perfect song to nail down everyone's feeling. I was so happy and that's how the band wants us to be. "The Squirming Coil" was another crowd pleaser which made us all sing together one more time but one song was still missing after 4 unbelievable days and nights. And they delivered it big time. "Wash uffize drive me to Firenze"! "You Enjoy Myself" is probably THE Phish song ("Man...", "God...", "Shit..."). It ended in a vocal jam like most of the times in the previous 2009. I was exhausted but after "Blue Moon" I saved the rest of my power for  "Loving Cup" - "I'm the man from the mountain...".

Oh my god, what a monster night! Probably my best Phish show ever! It seemed like everybody was enjoying themselves and collectively a lot. The crazy mix of people at Phish shows from all kinds of different states and with all kinds of different styles is a story of its own. I am so glad that Justin joined us. He is such a lovely guy who is always entertaining and outgoing which is infectious to others. One night is was screaming really loud and people around us jumped in and suddenly it spread like wildfire across the whole venue. He just smiled at me and said to me "You see... ;)". He's also a wild dancer and a real party animal. And it all started at Deer Creek when I asked him and Matt if there's some space to sit down in the shade together with them.

It's often the little things. We don't recognize the importance at first but later (sometimes a lot later) we look back and understand how destiny pushed us in this or that direction. Like the guy at the beach who blessed us or the cab driver who didn't want to pick us up again after the show ("Hey man, if I tell ya I pick ya up I would be lying. Traffic is CRAZY in Miami on NYE. I tell ya.").

When we stepped out into the warm December night everybody tried to get a cab. The police had closed down Biscayne Blvd so there no chance to catch one at all. We decided to walk a few blocks. We wanted to get back to the hotel quick as we had to get up early for our flight back. No taxi in sight. Fuck! We walked further north parallel to Biscayne Blvd. Thousands of peoples on the street. Phishheads mixing with the local club scene and night bar goers. Traffic broke down completely around AAA. I was expecting a long walk. But destiny gave us a miracle. The first taxi with lights on which came from the exit of the highway while I was running up the exit to secure it for us was driven by the same Caribbean cab driver who dropped us off before the show. Can you believe that? What is the chance for this coincidence to happen in Miami on NYE around AAA? This time I was like "Hey man, I tell ya this is CRAZY" ;) After a 20 USD ride we fall straight to sleep. See you in the morning and happy new year everybody!

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

Got up around 8am, Breakfast at 9am. The people at Best Western seem more white middle class than the crowd at the La Quinta yesterday - maybe its because the price of a room is twice as high. Breakfast selection is smaller despite that fact. I went for bagel with cream cheese and bagel with hard boiled egg plus a yogurt and two cups of extra strong coffee.

After strengthening for the day we drove down Biscane Blvd and crossed over to Miami Beach via Venetian Causeway. Getting a place for your car on Ocean Blvd is almost impossible so its better to go for one of the public parking garages on Washington or Collins. Turned out that we parked behind the Miami Police station on 11th street. From there its only a 2min walk to Ocean Drive with all its beautiful historic art deco buildings. Together with all the palm, the soft sea breeze, the sound of the ocean, the smell of food from the street restaurants, the noisy street and beach life, music from shops and bars it creates the very unique Miami beach atmosphere.

Walking around and thinking about tonight's first of four Phish shows is a surreal feeling. I really don't know what to expect (as always). We will probably here a huge bunch of repertoire with all classics over the next four days. With what song will they open tonight? It should be a statement of what to come. Will there be any guests like P-Funk in 2003. Some rumors whisper Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine which is certainly a perfect fit for the town. I would love to hear "Wilson" as opener tonight! Once your hear the guitar riff and 20.000 people screaming "Wilson" in between you get pumped like hell. I am wearing a old-school retro Wilson tennis t-shirt tonight which I just bought for the trip. It has the big Wilson logo on the front.

While typing these lines we are relaxing on the beach and eating some bananas and apples. Its cloudier than we thought but still quite warm. The weather comes from the Keys and moves by Miami during early afternoon. The sea gulls are walking around us eagerly observing us and hoping to catch some waste. They even fly really close above our heads almost attacking. The ocean is calm and quiet today.

Strangely I have only seen one single guy wearing a Phish shirt today and maybe 2-3 more people who potentially could be Phishheads. I guess 20.000 Phishheads are not to exposed among hundred of thousands of tourists. I wonder what the total number of phans in Miami is right now but probably not more than 35.000 as most of the people go to all shows. So its not 4 x 20.000 but more 15.000 fix + 4 x 5.000 different people each night. The question is if they really would sell out all the huge indoor and outdoor venues across the country night after night if the same people wouldn't go to ALL shows over and over again. Is there any "market research" or theories on this?

I think we head back to our hotel around 3pm, take a swim in the pool for about an hour, change clothes for tonight, drive to the Arena, get the tickets from will call (I am always nervous until I have tix in hand), have dinner at one of the restaurants at the port of Miami and go in once the door open around 6.30pm.

I hope to meet Justin and his friends from Indiana today. I met Justin and Matt (who unfortunately can't be here as he plays a NYE show with his own band "Catch Curtis" in Indiana) in Deer Creek and and all travelled to Alpine Valley. The funny thing is that Justin had to travel longer than we. Our total flight and travel time was approx. 18-19h. Justin's driving time was around 22h (only interfered by a short stop to watch a football game). I love people who are enthusiastic for music!

Yippie, the sun comes out again so please excuse me... ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

 

More pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got up around 8am, breakfast around 9am. Thank god its Sunday so the serve breakfast until 10. We stayed one night at the La Quinta Miami airport east just because it was the closest hotel (besides red roof and embassy suites) to the Alamo car rental station and was average in price and ok in ratings/reviews. A one way street made it a little complicated to get there though and it was already dark.

Once we entered the lobby and breakfast room we immediately recognized that it was totally overcrowded by a wild mixture of nationalities and colors. You got Hispanics, Asians, Europeans, Americans and Afro-Americans. Breakfast selection was the usual bagels/toasts and cream cheese, cereals, juices, fruits and coffee which is fine with me for a couple of days although I usually prefer a good selection of italian cheese and sausages. at home. I helped myself with slices of hard boilded eggs on a medium toasted bread with butter. Good choice!

It seemed like a miracle but after returning from the buffet style selection a table for two was just waiting for us. Each of us had approximately 3-4 orange juices as we didn't have anything to drink the whole night and we were totally dryed out. The reason was that I couldn't change any money in advance and we forgot to do it at the airport as we were too tired I guess. 20 USD were still in my wallet since the last Phish trip to Deer Creek and Alpine Valley in June this year but the vending machine seemed not too trustworthy to give it my last cash and hope for the return of change.

After the breakfast we checked out and got to our car on the parking lot - a silver Jeep Patriot with Florida license plate. After waiting on the phone for the Alamo roadside assistance over 15min I decided to keep the car and see what happens (if anything) due to the required oil change. Like in Indiana I will put a Phish logo sticker on the bumper to brand it the right way! Outside the weather was just brillant: sunny and warm like you imagine Florida to be. Its so cool to walk outside in December wearing nothing but shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops.

Next stop was a bank to withdraw cash and a pharmacy to get sun cream, contact lense fluid and a Revlon make up for my sister. Seems banal and not worth to mention but I looked up 2-3 stores in Indiana back in June to get it for her and I couldn't get it. Its the only thing she was asking for so I want to be a good brother and make her happy (I know she reads so blog so please forgive me to bore the rest of you on this one). Silke, I got it this time! ;)

Around 11.30am we reached our final destination - the Best Western waterfront Hotel which is located on the small island of North Bay Village between Miami and Miami Beach and is about 6-7 miles from the American Airlines Arena where the Phish NYE run will take place like in 2003 (our last time in Florida by the way). Our room with king size bed is located on the second floor with a view on the pool which looks a little bit like an 8 (coincidence after "festival 8"?). We could't restist and jumped in our bathing clothes to take a swim in the mid-day sun. Man, what do I have to say? Swimming under palms on Dec 27th and 4 Phish shows just one day away - what a great feeling. Now I know again why we took the long trip. My wife (we are only married since a week) is swimming like a dolphin and sun bathing like a lizard. We can't stop to smile. I know she's a little bit worried that 4 shows are too much for her as she likes some Phish but is not a fan. I am really grateful that she always supports my obsession. I guess that's unconditional love and what else can one demand? On the other hand there are worse places to be right now and if she gets beaches and palms and shopping malls all day long and I get rock'n'roll all night long evrybody is more than happy. That's the simple deal. Plans for the rest of the day are to walk the beach in North Miami beach and to drive to the Aventura shopping mall before having dinner at Shuckers Bar+Grill. That's all folks for the moment...

More pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

 

I am officially dead! It's 4am (Berlin) time, 10pm here in Miami and we are finally at our airport hotel for the first night. After standing up at 6.30am yesterday this is almost 22h of travelling. No fun so far.

The Alamo choice line didn't bring us luck either. We picked a Jeep and once we left the Alamo station I recognized a blinking "Oil Change Required" sign. I will either exchange cars tomorrow after breakfast or ignore it for the rest of the week. We are not touring whole Florida this time and within Miami it should last for a couple of miles - maybe hundreds of miles. Its not my car and they better should give people proper vehicles.

Anyway, right now I am too tired to complain about anything and hey, we are in Miami after all. From tomorrow on everythings gonna be alright. The weather will be nice, the beaches and palms lovely, the shopping malls are waiting only for us, Phish will play a 4-night run beyond imagination, my Deer Creek / Alpine phriend arrives soon, etc....

 

More pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

 

Puh, that new security rules are really boring. I mean, come on - 1h you are not allowed to read a book, a magazine or a news paper. Hey Mr., put away the evil "financial times", stop reading this dangerous "rolling stone" magazine. You are not allowed to have your pillow on your lap or listen to your iPod. For what reason? I don't get it but what I know for sure is that you don't argue with US flight attendance or sky marshalls or police officers or customs agents under any circumstances - you get the point ;) after landing it took almost 2h to get off the plane, get queued at immigration, get the bags, go through customs, re-check in the bags, go through security check for departure, go to the gate, board.
This is the second time this month (besides getting my Joy Box set out of customs in Berlin) where I get the feeling that one need to be a very big fan to do this.

Next off to Miami from Charlotte. Phish, we are coming... ;)

Landed in Frankfurt, stucked in Frankfurt.

Getting from Terminal 1A to 1C by airport train was easy but don't you hate it if they take you throught passport, boarding card and security checks over and over again? Our LH boarding pass wasn't sufficient to get on board so we had to exchange it. As a result we ended up in a huge waiting line. Only American travellers seemed to have the right boarding pass in hand. Coincidence?

The airline crew did not only double-check passports but also took us through an intense security questionaire. Felt like an interview with the homeland security department. Now we are sitting in the plane on the ground for over an hour because they need to clean up a "substance" which was found in the cargo of the plane. There are also brand new security rules on the plane due to the incident on the Delta flight. Passangers have to stay in their seats for the last hour of the flight. Hand lagguage and all personal belongings need to be stored, nothing may be placed on the lap during the last hour of the flight.

What else? I am expecting more surprises.

End of day 1, part 2 as I am going back to flight mode for the next 10h.

Well, today's the day I have been waiting for since months (besides marry my girl after 10 years of course which already makes me the happiest man on the planet). We got up early in the morning after just returning from christmas with the parents last night.

Packing for Miami was easy: Lots of Phish t-shirts (12 to be exactely so 2 per day). I've been a little nervous about the flight schedule during the last week as there was heavy snow and ice on most German and European airports which led to the close down of Berlin and Frankfurt 2 days before christmas for example. Temperatures are up again and everything seems to be back to normal. Taxi came quick and the streets in Berlin were almost empty as all shops and offices are closed. Check-in at the airport was also quick and we got some decent seats for the long distance flight. Its my first time with US Airways. Hopefully the Americans don't freak out completely because there was a (thank god failed) terrorist attack on a Delta plane to day where some Nigerian tried to set some explosives on fire but was tackled by crew members and passangers.

Ok, end of Day 1, Part 1 as I need to switch to flight mode.